SD 1 Transatlanic Crossing, Oct.15 - 26

Believe it or not, Sea Dream1 actually made a crossing this fall!

Reading this Board you would never know it. The SD2 passengers have been extremely chatty, but not us on the sister ship. Guess that those of us who were making the voyage were, and are, the strong, silent types, although it didn't seem like that while we were on board. We were the lucky few, only 57 of us I believe - and just as varied as Heinz's 57. A very congenial group, with just under half from the U.S. and strong contingents from the U.K and Australia together with Canadians, French, Germans, etc., etc., making up the balance. At his welcoming address the Captain admonished us to behave ourselves on board as the crew well outnumbered us. This was fine, as the service was extraordinarily good in all departments and in every respect.

The crossing itself was remarkably smooth and the weather warm. It was our tenth crossing on a variety of ships and in many ways the best we have experienced. Captain Berg, the friendly and very professional master of the ship, handled everything with quiet competance, including getting to San Juan a day early so that a passenger needing urgent medical attention was able to get it. The day at dock in San Juan was a chance for some passengers to go sightseeing and for others to do some leisurely packing.

Too many of the crew need complimenting to name all of them, but Martin - bartender at the Top of the Yacht - and Donald, Asssistant Chief Steward - are two that spring to mind.

Sleeping under the stars in mid-atlantic was a great experience, even if we were woken up by a loud coughing at 5 a.m. and found another passenger sitting in a nearby deck chair reading a book!

All in all it was a great trip and one that we hope to repeat.

We are so looking forward to the Eastbound Crossing next May - 13 days may be even better than 11

Thanks for the summary, Trulli. It's great to hear things went well on your crossing too. I bided my time waiting for our Nov 13 sailing on the "II" by catching every day's events with FT here on the boards - as well as the SeaDream crossing website they put up. I suspect those two factors contributed to the increased discussion traffic for "II" versus "I".

Thanks again! :)

Thanks for the report Trulli! I have the paperwork sitting here on my desk in our cabin for the fall crossing on SD 2. I am hoping the Captain will provide us with a smooth ride our two days at seas so DH will be on board for the '06 crossing.

I have spotted one or two SD1 crew here on SD 2 ... Fabian is now behind the scenes. I am hoping I will get a chance to say hello as he took excellent care of us last year on SD 1. Ramon is part of the waitstaff here on SD 2 but I don't thing that he remembers us.

Well SeadDreamers ... off to my book!

Hi Trulli

Glad your crossing was excellent also. I think a number of folks on this year's II crossing will be taking I next year due to the length of cruise (II is only 9 nights).

Were any of Lukas, Juan, or Christian on board? We enjoyed them very much last April.

How about Paul at the piano? Nights at the piano bar on II just weren't the same as on I last spring.

FT

Hello there, Frequent Traveller:

In answer to your questions -

Paul was certainly on board, playing beautifully and smiling all the time. He also remenbered a special request we made early in the voyage and played it for us whenever we showed up when he was playing. A really sweet and talented guy.

If Lukas was a bartender then he was still there too, usually in the Main Salon bar, doing a first rate job.

There was a waiter named Juan but we didn't have much interaction with him.

At breakfast we usually had Mikey looking after us and he was always quick, attentive and friendly.

There were so many good staff on board it's hard to remember them all.

Believe it or not, Sea Dream1 actually made a crossing this fall!

 

Guess that those of us who were making the voyage were, and are, the strong, silent types, although it didn't seem like that while we were on board. We were the lucky few....

Trulli, does that mean that no one got sick on the Atlantic Crossing?????? I ask because I believe people got sick on the next 4 day trip and UNFORTUNATELY, I was on the Oct. 30 nightmare cruise, where very many people got really sick. Just got home, so I will post a complete review when I am up to it, but the previous thread on "norwalk" viruses minimizes the seriousness of it. It was horrible, an absolute nightmare cruise!!! Unless your idea of fun includes projectile vomiting and horrible diarrhea!!! And on board, Sea Dream's respose was way less than optimal. Sea Dream did NOT handle it well, either before hand or during the cruise!!!!!!!! Will post more later, but I can say for sure, that IF I HAD A SEA DREAM CRUISE BOOKED THAT WAS OUTSIDE THE 90 DAY WINDOW, I WOULD CANCEL IT NOW, and if I had one booked soon on the Sea Dream 1, that was within that window I would do a lot of checking, from someone other than Sea Dream(like the CDC- center for disease control), before I got on that boat.

From a passenger on the "Nightmare" Cruise....

It seems to me that there are grave misconceptions about norovirus illnesses. Please check the CDC web site for info (http://www.cdc.gov/ncidod/dvrd/revb/gastro/norovirus-qa.htm).

Here is another link: http://www.cdc.gov/nceh/vsp/pub/Norovirus/Norovirus.htm

Sorry you had such a bad experience, Dream Vacationer.

On the crossing there were no instances of any Norwalk type illness, and I am sure that had there been any we would have been aware of them.

The whole time we were on board we kept noticing, and commented on, the way the staff were continually wiping down handrails in the stairwells as well as door handles etc. Their attention to cleanliness was more noticeable than on any other ship we have sailed on.

It looks as if someone might have brought a bug on when the 4 day cruise boarded in San Juan.

Hi Trulli

Well after short sojurns in Barbados, Chicago & Sonoma, we are back in the Sunburnt Country (with the flies) and our wonderful crossing in now a very fond memory. I am in the process of editing the photgraphs and that will take some time. I agree with your comments regarding the cruise and if anyone is having second thoughts about travelling on SD, I would say , jump at the opportunity. I was a little concerned about the weather but it turned out to be perfect. As you said, the service throughout was excellent and I would certainly single out Martin , Andre & Karl for special mention. If I had any citicism it would be the food as I had expected a culinary extravaganza but was a little disappointed. The buffet lunch was always good but some of the evening meals I felt were below the standard one would expect on a yacht of this quality. On several nights the food was excellent (The Degustation night in particular ) which made the indifferent meals even more so. Also, the prices placed on some of the Premium wines was a little high. It is hard to evaluate the wines that one doesn't know but the prices on their New Zealand and Australian wines was way too high. However, the "house" wines were fine with me and Andre was able to serve my favourite wine despite what everyone else was drinking. I certainly would repeat the experience but perhaps next time on the West - East crossing.

Best Regards

Downunder

Hello there, Down Under!

Glad to hear hear you made it home safely and hope that the rest of your trip was enjoyable.

We really appreciated your offer to spend our flight wait time at your beach hotel in San Juan, but when we got to the airport and checked our bags we were just too hot and uncomfortable to want to do anything. As it turned out, Ambassador Ed and Ann had almost as long a wait as we did so there was some good conversation to help pass away the time.

In my comments on Sea Dream I didn't mention the food, but we felt much the same way that you did. Overall the food was good, we didn't find anything wrong or bad - we never sent a meal back - and we thought the presentations were always attractive, but except for for a few meals there wasn't that 'wow!' factor that somehow we had expected. However, it in no way detracted from our enjoyment of the crossing. We are very seriously considering the 2006 SD I Spring crossing - a little longer than the one we were on and not too early in the year.

A couple of the photographs we took on board have your smiling face on them. Would you like me to e-mail them to your optushome address?

All the very best,

Trulli

That would be great. I seem to recall a rather raucous dinner where a "photo competition" was held.We would be happy to send you the results as they are most amusing (particularly a shot of Andy). It was all great fun and wonderful to meet so many interesting and amusing people.

Regards

Downunder

I am curious if the food on SD I is not as good as the food on SD II? The reviews from SD II rave over the fabulous food and the reviews from those that were on SD I seem to think it only "so-so".

IS it possible one ship has such differnt food?

We are leaving on SD I on Nov 27th. Hoping for some of the "wow"!

We've been on both ships many times and have always been impressed with the food. It does vary a tiny bit depending on who is the chef and what part of the world the ship is in but all in all we've found it to be uniformly excellent on both ships.

Have a great cruise.

Thank you!!